My Daily Grind

I took this set of photos last week before the rain started and the 'severe' clouds moved in and am just getting around to sharing them! This is my daily commute that I have crowned as the safest and most direct route between my house and work. It starts with a little jaunt down my street in the dark crossing into another quiet neighborhood and then cutting through our famous Piedmont Park. This is one of my favorite parts for several reasons:

1. I'm still sleepy so it's nice to not have to deal with traffic for the first 10 minutes in the mornings.
2. The views are really nice of the city lights behind the park.
3. A lot of people walk their dogs in this hour at the park, I really enjoy those happy mongrels waggin their tails and being so darn happy! It's like the dogs know how lucky they are to be out that early.
4. I enjoy the routine of the bootcamp people being there every morning. Do you have these in your towns? Atlanta has a surge of 'bootcamp' fitness workshops at all the city's parks. Piedmont has two groups that range from 25-50+ people in each group. Last week it got down to 67* in the am and there was dew on the grass. They left their imprints in the grass....

After cutting through the park I cut into one of Atlanta's premier neighborhoods- Ansley Park. This was the great view with the full moon last week over the high rises.... AND this part starts with a good downhill before I hit my numerous little hills...
From here I hit Peachtree Road and head to Buckhead and am in stop and go traffic the rest of the way. There is really only one long slow incline on the way and it gets easier everyday. Because it's cooler in the morning and my mind is still too asleep to wonder much I find that it's a great time to do little intervals. I try to aim for 30 seconds all out, but sometimes I'm so fast I get caught in the traffic lights, and I always stop for red lights. But some mornings it works out with the lights and I get a really great, intense workout in to start my day.

Then before I know it I'm in fancy-smancy Buckhead with it's glistening tall modern buildings...
After my 5.5 miles of intervals along Peachtree I come to Piedmont and Peachtree intersection where a really nice bike lane shows up out of nowhere. It's like a little piece of pie at the end of my ride. Ahhhhh, I can feel my body relax as I slow down in my own space from the passing vehicles, and it's less than .75 miles to work so I spin my legs out and smile and take my time.

Then in the afternoons I do it all over again. Down Peachtree with the stop and go traffic. Then my left turn into Ansley Park where they have another bike lane to remind me to relax and just sit back and enjoy my commute. Again, here is another picture of the Midtown buildings right behind the historical southern homes along my route. My pictures aren't really showing it, but the neighborhood seems so perfect with the perfect grass and planted flowers. That's my daily route that I've been conquering, lately in the rain. Speaking of the rain, yesterday was my most hardcore commuting day yet. My route changed as I had all day mandatory training at Emory University's Hotel and Conference Center. Since Emory just fully implemented their bike share program I knew they were bike friendly. So I called ahead and asked if I could use the locker room in their pool/gym area to get ready in the morning since it was calling for rain. They said no problem. Training started at 8am and I only live 4.5 miles away. I plotted out my neighborhood route and packed my trunk bag for the morning planning to leave early at 6:15 just because I didn't know the route or have ever been to the Conference Center.

The first mile into the downpour I thought 'what am I doing this for?' Then out of nowhere a huge smile came over my face and it became fun! And I learned a few lessons, as it was the heaviest rain by FAR that I have rode in. The complete downpour rendered my headlight not much more than a faint beacon and did not shed light as it does on a clear and warm night here in Atlanta. My planned route would have taken me along the Freedom Parkway PATH system, but there aren't many streetlights along that route so I ditched it at the last moment to take the main street. The main street is RED on the bike route map published by Atlanta Bicycle Campaign- which means high traffic and the opposite of bike friendly. But it was 6:15 in the morning I thought and I only needed to go about 1.25 miles. I made it about a block on Ponce before I got on the sidewalk. Although there wasn't much traffic Ponce is two lanes in either direction and the right lane had a river flowing, so I did the sidewalk thing until my turn. I turned into the Fernbank neighborhood which that street took me straight to Emory so it was easy. However, the houses are big and far apart and not many streetlights. In the downpour my weak little $29.95 headlight was virtually useless as the light did not light up anything in front of me except the flow of rain. I almost went down as a branch that had fallen into the street surprised me, luckily my cat-like-reflexes saved me! Lesson there is I need to buy a REAL headlight as soon as possible as I will be commuting in the dark very soon.

Additional lesson is that the Emory Hotel was super friendly about having me walk with squishy shoes inside dripping wet (completely soaked like I had jumped in a lake)! They gave me a key to get into the locker room and offered use of the guest dryer in the laundry facility for my clothes. The locker room had everything I needed, a warm shower, a dry sauna to dry out my stuff, free (good) shampoo/conditioner/lotion, fluffy white towels and TA DAH! A working hair dryer! I was set. Then it turned out they left it off my agenda but we were invited to have a really great buffet breakfast before our training! I really liked Emory- oh! I almost forgot AND the bike racks were RIGHT NEXT to the main entrance of the hotel! Rock on. I felt totally welcomed on my most hardcore bike commuting day!

By the way, the sun came out when I rode home from Emory, at least for the first 10 minutes then it just rained lightly- it was really nice!